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Taobei District fire, 25 March 2021 洮北区 · Taobei District, Zhenlai County

Out · last measured on 27 Mar 2021

The fire started on 25 March 2021 in Taobei District, China, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,072 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 347th largest in Jilin Province since 2016 (of 394 with a page). Number 211 in China in 2021, of 242.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Nong'an County · 2017Zhaodong City · 2024Taobei District · 2026Zhenlai County · 2026

We have the GWIS perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.

Burnt area
1,072ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
25 Mar 2021 – 27 Mar 2021
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
25 Mar
2021
Danger at start
12
Moderate · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

17°high
45km/h · peak gust
27%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

11% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 114 ha in 2020.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 0.7% of the area of London (11 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Taobei District 洮北区 where it started
    1,055 ha
    0.5 %
  2. Zhenlai County 镇赉县
    15 ha
    0.0 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2020
Built-up area12 ha
Residents≈ 400

Inside the perimeter there were about 12 hectares of built-up land and about 400 residents (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

The weather day by day

ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
25 Mar 13.2 °C 32 % 45 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 12
26 Mar 11.0 °C 44 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
27 Mar 17.1 °C 27 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 11
28 Mar after 12.5 °C 37 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
29 Mar after 11.3 °C 37 % 55 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 12
30 Mar after 13.1 °C 24 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
31 Mar after 14.8 °C 28 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
1 Apr after 15.8 °C 26 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
2 Apr after 16.7 °C 25 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
3 Apr after 10.6 °C 19 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
4 Apr after 15.2 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
5 Apr after 19.7 °C 14 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
6 Apr after 12.9 °C 16 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 24

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 11.6, a minimum humidity of 32% and 4 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 24.

FWI at the start 11.6
Minimum humidity 32 %
Days without rain 4
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Nong'an County fire, October 2017
1,362 ha 6 days FWI 10.2 Min. humidity 32 % 211 km away, in 2017

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.

See its page Compare with this fire

What happened to them

4 days
median duration
1,643 ha
median area
100 %
went past 1,000 ha
2.3 mm
rain at the end (median; 17 of 24 had it)

It stayed below its twins: 1,072 ha against a median of 1,643 ha. It lasted 3 days, against 4 days.

In 7 of 24, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.3 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

—first rain
—no rain in ten days
45km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 27 Mar, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 17 of 24, with a median of 2.3 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 18 Mar 2021
After · 3 Apr 2021

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Other fires nearby

All fires in China

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Taobei District fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 March 2021 and 27 March 2021: 3 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 1,072 hectares (10.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Taobei District (1,055 ha, 0.5 %); Zhenlai County (15 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 17.1 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 12, class Moderate.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of China (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 24. Their median duration was 4 days and their median area 1,643 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. In 7 of 24, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.3 mm.

Where to verify it

A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.

Emergency number: 119 · Emergency number and official warnings

Satellite cross-check

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

Does something look wrong on this page?

This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.

Report an error
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 119.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. No Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology

Where this data comes from

The perimeter comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Municipal boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM3 (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ from each country’s official figure.